{"id":329945,"date":"2025-12-04T03:36:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T03:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/the-booker-prize-2025-winner-lonesome-reader\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T03:36:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T03:36:04","slug":"the-booker-prize-2025-winner-lonesome-reader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=329945","title":{"rendered":"The Booker Prize 2025 Winner \u2014 Lonesome Reader"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

And just like that, another season of the Booker Prize comes to an end! It’s been so enjoyable reading and discussing all the books listed for this year’s prize. There were a few duds for me in the group but also many excellent novels that I’m not sure I’d have got around to reading otherwise. I’m very happy that the winner is \u201cFlesh\u201d<\/a> by David Szalay! <\/p>\n

This novel follows the life of Istvan from his teenage years in Hungary and a disastrous first affair to his later years. But rather than a complete account of his life this novel moves sequentially between islands of his experience. Usually there are years which pass between chapters but it gradually builds to form a portrait of what it means to him to be a man: to inhabit a man’s body, to channel his masculine desires and to live with the expectations placed upon him as a son\/husband\/father\/soldier\/bouncer\/businessman. The prose style is very stripped down in its dialogue and there are few descriptions of his emotions and yet it conveys something so essential about his nature and being. I think it’s an incredible portrait of a certain form of masculinity. When I read Szalay’s Booker shortlisted book \u201cAll That Man\u201d<\/a> Is I felt any one of its stories could have been a full novel and that’s what we get with this book, a complete and brilliant picture of a man’s life. I loved it! <\/p>\n

It was wonderful attending the Booker ceremony in London. What a buzz to be surrounded by so many authors and people from the publishing world! I had a lot of fun meeting other instagrammers and friends. Benjamin Wood told me he was obviously disappointed about \u201cSeascraper\u201d<\/a> not being shortlisted but it made attending the ceremony less stressful since there wasn’t the pressure of possibly winning. It was great meeting Susan Choi since I also loved \u201cFlashlight\u201d<\/a> and we have a mutual friend. It was also excellent to chat with Claire Adam about how moving and impactful my bookclub found reading her novel \u201cLove Forms\u201d<\/a> together. I also got to meet David Ebershoff (author of \u201cThe Danish Girl\u201d and other books) but also he is Joyce Carol Oates’ editor. So we geeked out about JCO for quite a while. It was lovely catching up with Chetna Maroo, author of the excellent previous shortlistee \u201cWestern Lane\u201d<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Of course, there was also the thrill of meeting Sarah Jessica Parker! I was so flattered she immediately recognised me and turned to her friend saying \u201cThis is the guy I was telling you about.\u201d This is an actress I’ve watched all my life from ‘Flight of the Navigator’ as a child to my early years in London watching ‘Sex and the City’ with my flatmates to the annual Christmas tradition of watching ‘The Family Stone’ with friends. Knowing that she’s watched and appreciated my videos is wild! She was so lovely and we had a great discussion about books during which she indicated that she’s regretful the competition necessarily means there can only be one winner. When I talked about my passion for \u201cSeascraper\u201d she clutched her chest and agreed she loved it too. I was very happy to see \u201cFlesh\u201d win but the real pleasure of following the Booker is discovering all the books and comparing notes with other readers. <\/p>\n

I’ve made a vlog about my experience of the evening (including the announcement and speeches from Samantha Harvey<\/a>, Penelope Lively and winner David Szalay) which you can watch here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aJ05mayaISU<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And just like that, another season of the Booker Prize comes to an end! It’s been so enjoyable reading and discussing all the books listed for this year’s prize. There were a few duds for me in the group but also many excellent novels that I’m not sure I’d have got around to reading otherwise. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":329946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[5198,3772,4211,3773,5967],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-329945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-booker","tag-lonesome","tag-prize","tag-reader","tag-winner"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Booker Prize 2025 Winner \u2014 Lonesome Reader - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=329945\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Booker Prize 2025 Winner \u2014 Lonesome Reader - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"And just like that, another season of the Booker Prize comes to an end! 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